Little-known fact about Liz: In a few weeks, I’ll be doing my third year of teaching chain mail making classes at Arisia, a local science fiction con. The classes will include a basic class for people wanting to make armor or jewelry, a jewelry class, and an open session.
I started making mail when we were remodeling the house. It was too hot to knit, and I had no space for woodworking. Mail needs few tools, and a tiny amount of space. I have happy memories of sitting in a camp chair in what was to become our new family room, enjoying the view of our back woods, smelling the lumber, and trying every weave I could find.
European 4 in 1
As preparation for my classes, I spent quite a bit of time creating diagrams and instructions. I’ve turned these into an e-book, which is for sale at Smashwords and many other e-book merchants.
Since the diagrams are important, your e-book reader/software will need to display images, and large enough for you to see the details. A smartphone won’t work, but a tablet PC or iPad is perfect.
Introduction to Chain Mail
Ebook By Liz Cademy
Published: Oct. 24, 2011
Let me know if you have questions / improvements I should make. A big advantage of an e-book is that the changes are easy to make.
Full Persian
When I was much younger, I made a couple of sleeveless hauberks using galvanized steel wire and butted rings. I was interested in learning to make proper rivetted mail, but did not have the expertise to make the necessary tools, nor access to soft enough iron wire.
Does your book cover riveted mail, welded rings (a modern style used in some shark suits), or just butted rings?
Just butted rings, and pre-cut at that.
This book really is a basic introduction, the type of material you’d get in a 3-4 hour course. It’s about evenly divided into armor and jewelry techniques, though there’s quite a bit of overlap.
At the end of the book are several web resources that go much deeper into mail.